-A Brief History of 'Pacman' It is hard to believe that PAC-MAN is now over 30 years old! The little yellow dot-muncher first hit arcades in May 1980 and quickly became a global phenomenon. To this day, PAC-MAN remains one of the most beloved video game characters of all time. PAC-MAN was created by Japanese game designer Toru Iwatani. Iwatani was inspired by a pizza with a missing slice, which...